Mobile Technology and App Use by Physicians

Physicians and technology. A bias persists that doctors don’t use technology enough, particularly social media and apps. Here at Sermo, we see things a little bit differently. While some doctors are reluctant to enter the digital pool, we have found that once they adopt, they adopt enthusiastically.

Our recent polling backs that up – take a look to learn more about mobile technology and app use by physicians. Doctors are open to adopting more technology to manage their practices and they embrace medical reference apps.

credit: Sermo

credit: Sermo

Popular Apps

The most popular smart phone for physicians is the iPhone according to MedCrunch. A few top apps are listed below and of course, our Sermo physicians are big adopters of our free iConsult app.

Medscape. Used by over 3 million doctors, nurses and medical students worldwide, Medscape is big. You can use it for medical news, clinical reference to things like drugs, diseases, conditions and procedures, and even provides medical education.

EpocratesRx. This app is popular for drug interactions, research, Pill ID and medicine calculators. The lite version is free, but you can purchase the full version for $160.

NeuroMind is a great app for neurologists, neurosurgeons and med students. It provides basic safety checklist requirements via the World Health Organization, and has “interactive clinical decision support.” It is the number one neuro app with over 140,000 downloads.

As a physician, do you use medical reference or other medical apps to help improve patient care for your patients? If you’re an M.D. or a D.O. you can continue the conversation inside Sermo and try out the iConsult app too.

Comments

Nearly 60% of physicians don’t use mobile technology for clinical purposes. Ultimately, it may be patients clamoring for more technology options from their physicians—such as access to medical records from smartphones—that pushes previously reluctant doctors to embrace technology.